By Now I Am Not ...

 ... surprised that it came down to this: 

The Pentagon has reportedly hired conservative military veterans with large social media followings to unspecified government positions. The Washington Post reported late Sunday that the Pentagon hired two conservative commentators—Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel with more than 135,000 X followers, and Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel with 620,000 X followers—to work in Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. The reports raise questions about transparency and Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's intentions in office. The former Fox News co-host has made efforts to influence the public's perception of the Pentagon, including hiring right-wing press corps to cover the government department while ostracizing other news outlets, leading to lawsuits.

As much as WaPo is a CIA dumpster, I can totally believe this--when one doesn't know how to fight a war (Pentagon doesn't) what's left is to BS people into believing that Hegseth is the second coming of Friedrich the Great. Or Zhukov. But he is not. 

Meanwhile, Banderols are "having an impact" on Odessa, among many other cities in 404, right this moment. 

The shelves of 404 grocery stores are getting emptied by panic rush  demand and catastrophic disruption of supply chains. 

I want to stress again, what I said at Daniel Davis' show today--morons in D.C. as always didn't understand what kind of people they decided to fuck with. Unsurprising for a system which has no Russia's experts and is amateur in matters of war. Anglo-Saxon world was given a chance in WW II to survive and correct itself. It learned absolutely nothing. Not surprising. 

Say It Ain't So!

Or "no shit" moment of clarity from morons. 

Oil prices dropped sharply after the ceasefire, but supply chains remain constrained and slow to recover.

A widening gap between futures and physical markets reflects ongoing operational and logistical risks.

Asian buyers face continued shortages as Gulf supply routes remain unreliable and alternatives uneconomic.

In related news. US GDP is much-much smaller than stated, Wall Street has nothing to do with real economy, using profits and "capitalization" as the only metric for economic viability is for morons only, and I can continue with this list for a long time. The depth of the damage to "global economy" is still not grasped by many, but despite optimistic declarations from corrupt Gulfies that it may take 4 months to come back "to normal" once "the war is over", reality is catastrophic for these despicable glitzy satrapies, because they cannot wrap their brains around the fact that Iran (and Houthis) de facto control access to Saudi terminals of its East-West pipeline in the Red Sea. 

For Israel the situation is terminal. It is a pariah criminal state whose Zionist cancer poisoned the United States and who knows where it leaves the US in spiritual terms. If that is true:

The Vatican has cancelled a papal visit to the U.S. for the 250th anniversary celebration after Pentagon officials appeared to threaten the leader of the Catholic Church for speaking out against Trump's foreign policy. Pope Leo XIV—the first American Pope in history—strongly condemned U.S. actions in Iran though not by name in his Easter message, stating that God "does not listen" to world leaders who wage war. 

Here are some details: 

Leo had already criticized Trump's actions on Venezuela and his threats against Greenland and Canada in a speech on January 9th stating, "a diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force." In response, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre—the Vatican ambassador to the U.S.—to a meeting. In diplomatic parlance, an ambassador being summoned to meet with government officials for a lecture is the first stage in disciplinary action that can lead to a break off of diplomatic ties. It is being reported by The Free Press that in the meeting Colby told Pierre, "The United States has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side." Someone in the meeting then reportedly mentioned the Avignon Papacy to Pierre. This refers to a 14th century attack on the Vatican by the French king, in which Pope Boniface VIII was murdered by assassins and the Vatican was forced to relocate to Avignon where it could be controlled by the French crown for the next 67 years. 

Well, if Pentagon thinks (which you would expect from a lawyer and NS bureaucrat like Colby) that "it can do whatever it wants", I can tell Mr. Colby who wouldn't understand anything about REAL military operations, that the only thing the US has succeeded in doing is having its ass handed to it on every single theater of operations. If that's what the US "military power wants to do" then it certainly succeeded, including now with Iran where the US was militarily humiliated. But then again, Colby hails from a bloodline (grandson) of former CIA Director William Colby, who was a staunch Catholic. So, his grandson now threatens Pope ... great! Insanity ... But then again, CIA's "strategic analysis" and "understanding" of the enemy was always, how to put it ... subpar. 

It Is All Interconnected ...

 ... Larry Wilkerson is straight forward with this whole Mossad and IDF thing. 

Cannot get any clearer than that, but we knew this, if not knew then suspected anyway. So, this should not come as a surprise at all. Meanwhile, in other theater: 

UN, March 23. /TASS/. The Kyiv regime, refusing to negotiate and continuing the war, will soon face new conditions for resolving the conflict. This was stated by Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, at a meeting of the Security Council on Ukraine, convened at the request of Kyiv. "The President of Russia has repeatedly confirmed that we are unequivocally committed to a negotiated solution and achieving the goals of the NWO by diplomatic methods, but since the Kyiv regime is not ready for this and, instigated by its European friends, is going to continue to fight at any cost. He will soon have to face new settlement conditions," Nebenzya said.

This is for those who lose focus. I, obviously, cannot vouch for 4 (four) S-400 systems (whatever that means) delivered to Iran, but it becomes clear that WSJ's lamentations are not baseless. 

And Israel's attempts at striking Bandar-Enzeli port at Caspian Sea is an indicator of them understanding that the line Astrakhan-Enzeli may become a very intensive SLOC (Shipping Line Of Communications). RT is pressing me to give commentary to war criminal Lindsey Graham's statement that US marines took Ivo Jima and they can take Kharq Island. Anna Paulina already reacted: 

I am deeply upset at the lack of respect for life Senator Lindsey Graham is displaying when talking about our troops. He is acting as if they are expendable cattle. This is unacceptable and dark. There were over 26,000 American casualties at Iwo Jima.

Well, Lindsay Graham, as most of the US Congress, are as removed from real war as humanly possible. Obviously such simple things as "fire impact", "fire density", "weight of the salvo", "casualties" and other entry level terms for a platoon CO are not known by Lindsey (yeah, "a veteran") and "long range fires" are used in Pentagon (which is controlled by Israel) only when applied against the enemy. The whole notion that your troops are defenseless against long range fires of your enemy is beyond the grasp of the graduates of the US War Colleges. But yes, Top Gun: Maverick did really well at the box office.

Let us recall, the conclusion to Dune by Frank Herbert. Report on the Bene Gesserit Motives and Purposes:

The Lady Jessica was ordered to produce an Atreides daughter. The plan was to inbreed this daughter with Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, a nephew of the Baron Vladimir, with the high probability of a Kwisatz Haderach from that union. Instead, for reasons she confesses have never been completely clear to her, the concubine Lady Jessica defied her orders and bore a son. This alone should have alerted the Bene Gesserit to the possibility that a wild variable had entered their scheme. But there were other far more important indications that they virtually ignored: In the face of these facts, one is led to the inescapable conclusion that the inefficient Bene Gesserit behavior in this affair was a product of an even higher plan of which they were completely unaware!

"An even higher plan." But how can you explain a child of five what System of Systems is and what this (among many other things) ...

... a simple MDP (Markov Decision Process) with three states (green circles) and two actions (orange circles), with two rewards (orange arrows) is, and how strategies are developed. Impossible in the culture shaped by Hollywood and GIGO. Repeating "the spice must flow" many times doesn't change anything unless you are aware and internalize. For those who want some idea about Markov Chain--here is an excellent intro. 

Try it, it is not as hard as it seems for intro level. 

I Will Decode Him ...

 ... for $200,000. Pentagon is not gonna like it but I can. I was "decoding" him and Russia successfully for many years. OK, $150 grand will do. But those "decoders" from Pentagon and CIA better update their understanding of real: warfare, economy, strategy, military history, operational art, Russian culture and few other things which are required for understanding of their predicament. 

My decoding, however, will have an adverse effect on the psyche of Pentagon's big honchos and something tells me--they will not accept my offer. They will, as always, find some losers who will BS them by tickling their fancy that they are "the finest fighting force in history" and they will ... fail to grasp anything yet again. 

It Takes Different System.

In fact, it takes different economy. Calling on the phone or arranging conference calls is not going to cut it. 

The US is working to ramp up missile production in preparation for a potential conflict with China, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing officials familiar with the matter. The Pentagon is reportedly pressing defense contractors to double or quadruple output amid mounting concerns over insufficient weapons stockpiles. The US Department of Defense launched the drive in June, when it invited top missile makers to a Pentagon roundtable, sources told the paper. Led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, the meeting drew major arms contractors, startups like Anduril Industries and crucial component suppliers.

To understand the scale it is enough to mention that Russia is using up to 500 air defense missiles DAILY--primarily short to mid-range AD complexes such as Pantsir, Tor and Buk of various iterations. Here is a demonstration:

This is a rather "calm" day and only 147 UAVs have been shot down, then there are always all kinds of shit like HIMARS et al--they also get shot down (most if not all of them) and just for the 29 September 2025 Russian Army's expenditure of missiles (including missiles of Igla type launched often from Ka-52 and Mi-28 helos). There is, obviously, EW too. The average daily shooting down of UAVs alone throughout SMO is about 180 (178, actually) per day. So, we can now move into a very rough estimate for UAVs (alone, I stress it for UAVs alone). We reduce the number of those UAVs shot down by AD missiles (for convenience) to 100 daily. 

So, the basic math, then, is such: 100 daily shot down by AD missiles (no EW, no anti-drones, no AAA), SMO lasts 1,313 days so far. So, we multiply 100 by 1,313 and get 131,300 air defense missiles of all kinds. If you think that this:

Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg is playing an “unusually” hands-on role in the effort, reportedly known as the Munitions Acceleration Council. The WSJ noted that the top official personally calls some executives on a weekly basis to track their progress. “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are exploring extraordinary avenues to expand our military might and accelerate the production of munitions,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the newspaper. “This effort has been a collaboration between defense industry leaders and senior Pentagon officials.” The new acceleration council is focused on 12 weapons that the Pentagon wants on hand for a potential conflict with China, the WSJ relayed. Some officials and experts have reportedly expressed concerns that the Pentagon’s goals may be unrealistic, citing the fact that assembling certain missile systems can take up to two years. At the same time, certifying new suppliers requires hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure the products meet military standards. Funding remains another major concern, according to analysts cited by the news outlet. While the “Big, Beautiful Bill” recently approved by Washington provided an extra $25 billion in munitions spending over five years, meeting the Pentagon’s new targets could require tens of billions more.

Is going to help--I have a bridge to sell you. For war with China the US will need not 12 but likely 120 types of weapons most of which do not exist in nature--the emphasis on AD. Especially considering such a teeny-weeny fact that with Russia having China's back--a fact which is well-known--one MUST ask the question of what happens when Russia either transfers or deploys and mans her weapon systems to aid China? We know the answer. Or rather, we know that there is no answer quantitatively and qualitatively if, God forbid, crazies in D.C. decide to test REAL opponents. But then again, all this hassle in D.C. is yet another indication of a collapsing empire and there are no "extraordinary avenues". To fight REAL war the US must have a political and economic system based on fundamentally different principles which is impossible to conceive today in the country which largely faked its military history of the XX and XXI centuries. 

There Is No "Strategy".

NATO doesn't do strategy, in fact--most in it do not have even a fleeting grasp of what strategy is and how to match critical resources to political aims--you know, the reason why wars are fought. 

Multiple reports in Western news media highlight President Donald Trump’s growing dissatisfaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Financial Times reported that Trump had encouraged Kiev to punish Putin by striking deep inside Russian territory—perhaps even hitting Moscow—if the U.S. provided it with more long-range weapons. (Trump has denied he supports such strikes.)  In marked contrast to the initial weeks of his second term, Trump has now effectively signed on to NATO’s uncompromising strategy of insisting on Russia’s capitulation with respect to the terms of a peace accord between Russia and Ukraine. The Western demands include Russia’s complete withdrawal from conquered Ukrainian territory (including Crimea) and its acquiescence to Kiev’s possibly joining NATO. Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Admiral James Stavridis expresses the prevailing mentality of hardliners when he contends that sending Ukraine openly offensive weapons might be the most effective way to force Moscow back to the negotiating table.

Pentagon (I omit here amateurs from European armies) doesn't do strategy--one cannot do strategy based on own military fairy tales and Wall Street "economic" indices. But that is what they teach in NATO's military academies. So, Trump is free to sign on whatever it wants, but it gives me a great pleasure to point out, despite our irreconcilable differences on Russian history of the the 20th century, our almost word in word assessment of the Western militaries. 

You cannot overcome this cultural and mental block, period. And let's state very clearly, in fact, stress it--a MAJOR factor driving speeches and actions of such people like Stavridis or Keane is an insufferable professional jealousy and envy. Just to demonstrate another one fairy tales narrator from the US military--now Army Europe Chief General Donahue:

We know what we have to develop and the use case that we’re using is you have to [deter] from the ground,” he said. “The land domain is not becoming less important, it’s becoming more important. You can now take down [anti-access, aerial-denial] A2AD bubbles from the ground. You can now take over sea from the ground. All of those things we are watching happen in Ukraine.” For example, Donahue noted, Kaliningrad, Russia, is roughly 47 miles wide and surrounded by NATO on all sides and the Army and its allies now have the capability to “take that down from the ground in a timeframe that is unheard of and faster than we’ve ever been able to do.”

Somebody has to explain to him, that everything he was taught and knows about "war" (he never saw one) is largely police operations' mangled pseudo-strategic BS. I guess he still doesn't understand that the pivot of all US Army Field Manuals those proverbial "long-range fires" are not even in the same universe with what Russian Army fields today. And if he wants to "take" Kaliningrad, Russia will take out first any column of NATO troops moving towards Kaliningrad and if that will not help, she will take out Washington and most US bases around the world. But then again, this is the simple truth I try to convey for the last decade--choose your own league. Roger Waters gets it when explains that the US doesn't understand who did it get itself entangled with, but he is a musician--granted, a genius one--evidently US generals don't.  

In Related News ...

 ... water is wet, the fire is hot, and Trump Admin has no clue what is going on. Neither does Pentagon and CIA. 

Feb 3 (Reuters) - U.S. shipments of weapons into Ukraine were briefly paused in recent days before resuming over the weekend as the Trump administration debated its policy towards Kyiv, according to four people briefed on the matter. Shipments restarted after the White House pulled back on its initial assessment to stop all aid to Ukraine, two of the sources said. There are factions inside the administration that are at odds over the extent to which the U.S. should continue to aid Kyiv's war effort with weapons from U.S. stocks, said one of the people, a U.S. official.

How many times--it is all about the US trying to prove itself which it never was and could never be--a serious continental warfare power. I will repeat (again)--the Army which venerates Patton as a serious military leader--it is long overdue for studying real warfare. 

Absolutely Misplaced.

I am talking about professional criteria (which my today's video is about). 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world's largest and most powerful military. The news was met with bewilderment and worry among many in Washington as Trump passed on a number of established national security heavy-hitters and chose an Army National Guard major well known in conservative circles as a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend.” While some Republican lawmakers had a muted response to the announcement, others called his combat experience an asset or said he was “tremendously capable.” Hegseth's choice could bring sweeping changes to the military. He has made it clear on his show and in interviews that, like Trump, he is opposed to “woke” programs that promote equity and inclusion. He also has questioned the role of women in combat and advocated pardoning service members charged with war crimes.

His combat experience in Afghanistan is irrelevant within the framework of global balance of power and to "tame" Pentagon one needs a huge expertise in procurement and R&D, which automatically disqualifies Hegseth on this merit alone. It is all fine and dandy to command a company, but many people forget that USMA at West Point USED TO BE (not anymore) a good engineering school first and foremost. I'll give you a mental experiment... Take an aging fart like me and put me in charge of the staff of, say, coastal missile systems (Bastions), restore my clearance and give me a month or two in the formation, without unnecessary humbleness--I will be able to run it and provide for acceptable combat readiness. Get my aging ass to some missile corvette--same shit, after a month or two I will be able to command it or to become COS of the brigade of such ships. I will be able to do it because I have fundamental military-engineering background which is a MUST for such tasks. Hegseth has degree in... Politics. Now imagine this guy taking on utterly corrupt R&D and procurement policies of Washington. I don't think so. 

And then, of course, there is SMO, Russia and 21st century battlefield, which was utterly absent in Iraq and Afghanistan. But then again, Lisa Franchetti has degree in journalism and in business from the on-line college. She is CNO (Chief of Naval Operations)--Chester Nimitz and Elmo Zumwalt are spinning in their graves. Let me remind WHO was the guy behind stunning technological development and industry reorganization in Russian Armed Forces. Compare: 

Yury Borisov was born on 31 December 1956 in Vyshny Volochyok. He graduated from Kalinin Suvorov Military School [ru] in 1974 and from Radioelectronics Higher Command School in 1978. In 1980s he studied mathematics at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University from which he graduated in 1985. Borisov is married and has two children. For 20 years from 1978 to 1998 he was enlisted into the Armed Forces of both the Soviet Union and Russia. He was Federal Agency on Industry deputy head in October 2007 and became Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade in July 2008. He was a Military-Industrial Commissioner for Russia in March 2011 and as of 12 November 2012 under Presidential Decree, Borisov was promoted to Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation.

That's the caliber of people and their competencies one needs to change things. No additional comments are necessary...

In Related News...

 ... water is wet, fire is hot and concrete is hard. Duh!

Ukraine’s Western backers do not object to Kiev’s large-scale incursion into Russian territory, Politico reported on Friday, citing officials. Ukraine launched an attack on Kursk Region on Tuesday in what is its largest assault on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict. The Russian Defense Ministry estimated at the time that the Ukrainian offensive force consisted of up to 1,000 soldiers and dozens of armored vehicles, including some supplied by the West. On Friday, however, Forbes claimed that the attack involved “at least three brigades,” each with up to 2,000 troops, including some of the best-equipped units in the Ukrainian army. Politico reported that some of Ukraine’s Western backers that had previously voiced concerns about escalation in the conflict gave a “greenish” light to the attack, adding that there “there is no sign” that they “are putting pressure on Kiev to ease off.”

I repeat ad nauseam--Pentagon and the combined West who had their asses handed to them in every single war they unleashed in the XX and XXI centuries live vicariously through their best proxy they ever had. Many people try to ignore this factor, but I stress it all the time--David Eisenhower, to his credit, describes the factor of professional envy of Western Allies of the Red Army on a number of occasions in his classic book on his famous Grandfather. Same is here--military impotence and spite drive many things in Washington, especially against the ongoing collapse of the American military pseudo-history--a collection of confabulated military stories to buttress American founding myth of the "greatest country there ever was". So, seeing all this circling the drain hurts, undoubtedly. So, what's left--convulsions of a rowdy psychiatric ward patient, who is restrained by orderlies and is taken to the padded room, who in desperation from inability to do anything bad to a doctor spits in his direction. 

Russians, meanwhile, do as they usually do--go through proper motions and annihilate whatever is left of those two hapless VSU brigades which are running around in small groups of scared shitless survivors. Hence the Counter-Terrorism Regime in Kursk Oblast, not the Military Regime---there is a huge difference. I elaborated enough on this issue in my yesterday's video. But main conclusion is--NATO (headed by the US) should go to the military grammar school and learn what modern warfare is against Russian military machine and stop pretending that they are in the same league. They never were, fighting primarily for PR effects, a doomed "strategy", if you can call it such, but that's the only thing they can do...

Not Gonna Help.

For a very substantial reason. 

The US Department of Defense has put out an order for several books by Western researchers on Russian and Chinese military strategies. The materials are meant for US Air Force personnel stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, which is home to the Air Force Historical Research Agency and Air University.  The order, which was made in mid-May on the government’s e-procurement system, is for the following books: ‘Strategiya: The Foundations of the Russian Art of Strategy’ by Ofer Fridman, a lecturer at King’s College London; ‘Russian Grand Strategy in the Era of Global Power Competition’ by Andrew Monaghan; and ‘Putin’s War on Ukraine: Russia’s Campaign for Global Counter-Revolution’ by Samuel Ramani. Also on the list is ‘The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China,’ accompanied by two more books on the combat application of artificial intelligence and space warfare.  The Pentagon expects to purchase 600 copies of each book by mid-June.   

The reasons being: 

1. There are currently NO serious Russia scholar in the West, with remarkable exception of people like Colonel Jacques Baud or Lester Grau. NONE, period. Russia's XX century history is a combination of horror fantasy novels and lies from dissident community and white immigration. How about learning about Soviet realities from REAL historians.

2. For any Western "strategist" writing on Russia the "research" should start from discarding fantasies and fairy tales about West's role in WW II and appropriate use of war correlates and statistics from authoritative sources--not from former Wehrmacht losers who supplied Anglo historiography with pseudo math and copious amount of BS. 

3. Studying "strategy" without serious operational background and apparatus (tool kit) which goes into it--is a waste of time. Without serious grasp of math and physical principles on which modern battlefield and technology operate this whole "study" is a waste of time and will produce no positive outcomes with the exception of what Western "strategists" (most of them with humanities degrees) usually do--quoting Clausewitz, Sun Dzu, Jomini et al. This is a fool's errand. 

4. In the end, they either accept the fact that the US is primarily a naval power and is not even in the same league with Russia in continental warfare, or they should simply cancel this order and stick to what they know best--confabulation of warfare. 

These four points describe in general why reading Western "researches" not gonna help.

How To Put It In Simpler Terms...

... regarding this thing: 

The US-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, will allow Ukrainian forces to target Russia’s Crimean Peninsula “more effectively,” the New York Times has reported, citing senior Pentagon officials. Washington secretly sent Kiev an unspecified number of longer-range ATACMS missiles last month, US officials confirmed earlier this week, after several outlets claimed that Kiev has already begun using the new weapon against Russian targets far behind the frontlines.

Ah yes, the water is wet, the fire is hot, and Biden Administration lives vicariously through Kiev regime. Russia gives the number of new delivery of ATACMS to be around 100 and most of those will be used in a desperate attempt to damage the Crimean Bridge. This is as far as Pentagon's military competencies extend, but what you are going to do? Simple: more of 404 will be taken by Russia for creation of a buffer (or cordon sanitaire), as Peskov quoted Putin today (in Russian). So, that means a complete removal of 404 cannon fodder from the left bank of Dnepr and, possibly, some territories on the right one. Which ones? It is for the General Staff to decide. Maybe 404 can ask Pentagon to provide those oil rigs with missiles and float them on Dnepr to deter Russian Army? Great operational thinking it will be. I am sure this plan will stun Kremlin and General Staff. 

To demonstrate, however, how "principled" combined West is:

MONTREAL/OTTAWA, April 23 (Reuters) - Canada has granted Airbus a waiver to allow it to use Russian titanium in its manufacturing after becoming the first Western government to ban supplies of the strategic metal in its latest package of measures triggered by the war in Ukraine. The move gives Airbus flexibility in its Canadian plants and is expected to allay concerns that its core operations could be hit by effectively banning the import to Canada of its European-built jets that rely most heavily on lightweight titanium.

You see, those people still live in la-la-land in which they do not recognize that in Russia they are looked at as lowlifes (not Airbus, the governments) and Russia merely sticks to contract obligations across the whole spectrum of industries, from oil, gas to titanium and other goodies, such as uranium, among many others. Combined West simply cannot declare war on Russia. No, not just for military reasons--only graduates of Top Gun: Maverick school of advanced military studies believe in the US military might--for economic ones, because that would make any contracts null and void and the "transition" from Russian energy to primarily agrarian and touristy societies in EU is not completed yet. The US tries to avoid such fate. Of course even the US is being forced to live on what it earns, but that will come slightly (very slightly) later. This activity by Russia is merely upholding her renomee as a reliable partner in any endeavor. 

 

Speaking of which, Evgeny Super and Nataliya Kirillova speak (sadly only in Russian) with people from one of the Russian companies which produces fully all components for controls of CNC machine centers. 

Remarkably, as it turned out, Russia produces all necessary hardware for both CNC and other multi-axis manipulators (aka "robots"). Russia is now in pursuit of her own fully independent software which will be on par with the best Western analogues. It is all about cooperation, because Russian firms in general have most of those constituent parts already available. Well, remember who Russia's PM Mikhail Mishustin is--he has a graduate degree in design of machining complexes. This is what "Titanium" firm makes:

The brains of machining centers (up to 6-axis). Well, it is not the first time for Russia to go it alone, and she usually succeeds.

Now to a very serious situation: two lowlifes who wore the uniform of Russian Army, evidently committed atrocity by executing seven people in three of the villages in Kherson region. The shells at the places of execution matched shells which those two used, they already admitted the guilt. They have been arraigned and transferred to Military Police, the investigation is ongoing and we may know more details as times passes. Remarkably, one of them has been... imprisoned twice before: once for manufacturing and distribution of drugs and second time... for murder. Do I sense a putrid stink of Wagner? (in Russian). Now comes the second issue--this all is a belch of a liberal Criminal Code pushed through by West's agents of influence, including moratorium on death sentence, in 1990s and of the practice of organized crime group aka Wagner recruiting criminals from prisons: Prigozhin loved his own kind. But let's wait for more details. These two murderers should face a firing squad, or be hanged in one of the villages they committed this crime.

As We All Know...

 ... Ukies do not operate Patriot PAC3. Those systems are operated by US personnel, including making a decision on its use. 

The US and its citizens are complicit in the deaths of the Ukrainian POWs who were killed last week when the Russian Il-76 military aircraft transporting them was shot down by Kiev’s troops, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has said. On Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee released a report stating that the cargo plane was destroyed using two US-made MIM-104A missiles fired by a Patriot air-defense system. The Il-76 came down in Russia’s Belgorod Region last Wednesday. All of those on board – 65 Ukrainian POWs, three Russian troops, and six crew members – were killed. Russian investigators stated that Ukrainian troops fired the missiles from a staging area in Kharkov Region, not far from the village of Liptsy, some 10km from the Russian border. They based their conclusion on 116 missile fragments found at the crash site bearing inscriptions in English. Responding to the report, Zakharova said in a Telegram post that US citizens “need to know where their money is going,” arguing that President Joe Biden and his administration have made Americans “complicit in a bloody tragedy.”

I am sure those guys will get Bronze Star for shooting a defenseless aircraft carrying POWs. Not the first time the US shot down civilian aircraft. 

Somehow, I am not surprised--the rage and hatred is boiling in Pentagon after it was exposed as impotent and those "servicemen" couldn't miss such an opportunity to shoot down essentially a civilian aircraft whose arrival was... coordinated with Ukrainian side. Well, this is about the level of "operations" they can conduct nowadays--shooting civilian aircraft from the AD ambush. Hollywood should make a movie about these "heroes".

It Is Not Belief...

 ... it is the fact, Colonel Davies, that Russia fights a combined West. 

Otherwise, how can one explain the presence of hundreds of NATO tanks, APCs, Air Defense complexes, other weapon systems, war materiel and, not least, "advisers" on the side of VSU. Let's not muddy waters here, even WaPo is open about this now--the whole Goddamn thing was planned in Pentagon and by British military amateurs. Ukies have been merely awe-struck students who followed NATO "planning" and we can see the result of it now. I know it hurts, but Pentagon doesn't do real strategy or real serious operational planning against REAL armies or superpowers--they don't teach it in the US. US simply has no experience with fighting wars of such scale to any favorable outcome. "Brilliant" campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan or Vietnam are a testament to this inability. The system for such wars is simply not there, it never was. One cannot change the military "genetics" of primarily a naval power, which never fought anything but expeditionary warfare.  

But now acrimony starts, as does whitewashing of Pentagon's incompetence, because it is a combined West, not 404, which has been militarily and economically defeated in what used to be Ukraine. NATO weapon systems' manifest failures as inadequate for modern battlefield, as well as tactics, which, in the end, VSU simply discarded in favor of good ol' Soviet/Russian Combat Manuals, is a testimony to a systemic failure of the NATO views on war. Litmus test is there--Army which venerates Patton as a great general has issues with real military history and warfare. Repeating beaten to death military cliches and living a sheer fantasy which passes in Pentagon for "military science" is not a substitute for real wars' experience and ability to execute operations based on realities, not PR BS. US exposed its hollow military power to the world and that is why this acrimony starts--it is over for bullying and self-proclaimed hegemon and many are hurt and bitterly angry because of that. 

But Kubler-Ross for the combined West is now in transition from bargaining to depression, the acceptance is ahead. And no amount of words, the palliative verbiage can change the reality of a catastrophic defeat of not just US best ever proxy, but a complete collapse of the edifice of favorite myth of the "finest fighting force in history", it is not and, frankly, never was. It hurts, I know, but let's hope that in the long run it will lead to a serious reassessment of the US military-economic capability, which will be brought to the levels of America's real military needs, not the bloated and incompetent military-political bureaucracy and hollow force. I have a hint: how about reassessing own role in the world--that could be a good start. 

Really?

LOL. 

По приглашению Европейского командования Вооруженных сил США 1-3-его ноября первый заместитель министра обороны РА, начальник Генерального штаба ВС РА, генерал-лейтенант Эдвард Асрян посетил штаб-квартиру Европейского командования США в Штутгарте. 3-его ноября состоялась встреча с заместителем командира Европейского командования США, генерал-лейтенантом Стивеном Башами. В ходе встречи обсуждены вопросы развития армяно-американского военного сотрудничества. Генерал-лейтенант Эдвард Асрян представил детали проводимых в Вооруженных силах РА реформ, и ожидаемую от США поддержку в деле их реализации. Генерал-лейтенант Стивен Башам выразил готовность США продолжать содействие текущим программам сотрудничества, а также инициировать новые направления сотрудничества по следующим сферам: профессионализация вооруженных сил, укрепление профессионального сержантского состава, модернизация системы управления, миротворчество, военная медицина, военное образование и боевая подготовка, учения и прочее. Обсуждены также вопросы региональной безопасности. В рамках визита генерал-лейтенант Эдвард Асрян посетил также расположенный в Гогенфельсе (ФРГ) объединенный многонациональный центр подготовки Сухопутных войск США в Европе (Joint Multinational Readiness Center - JMRC) и Академию сержантского состава (NCO Academy).

Translation:  At the invitation of the European Command of the US Armed Forces, on November 1-3, the First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, Chief of the General Staff of the RA Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Edward Asryan visited the headquarters of the US European Command in Stuttgart. On November 3, a meeting was held with the Deputy Commander of the US European Command, Lieutenant General Stephen Bashamy. During the meeting, issues of development of Armenian-American military cooperation were discussed. Lieutenant General Edward Asryan presented details of the reforms being carried out in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, and the support expected from the United States in their implementation. Lieutenant General Stephen Basham expressed the United States' readiness to continue to facilitate ongoing cooperation programs, as well as initiate new areas of cooperation in the following areas: professionalization of the armed forces, strengthening of professional non-commissioned officers, modernization of the command and control system, peacekeeping, military medicine, military education and combat training, exercises and other. Issues of regional security were also discussed. As part of the visit, Lieutenant General Edward Asryan also visited the Joint Multinational Readiness Center (JMRC) and the NCO Academy located in Hohenfels (Germany).

Listen, I always maintained the decorum, professional respect and giving the credit where the credit is due for the US Army. This is not the case anymore--SMO demonstrated a sheer incompatibility of the US ground forces doctrine and TOE for REAL war and combined arms operations. Moreover, I am on record--US military will learn very precious little in terms of VSU "lessons" due to lack of access to correlates of war, which are in the foundation of real lessons and adjustments on operational and strategic levels. The fact that some tactical lessons could be learned and some adjustments made in Field Manuals here and there change very little in the Pentagon's clockwork. 

The fact that what remains of VSU at some point of time simply refused to follow NATO "training"--the fact extremely well documented by media--is already a red flag in regards to "a finest fighting force in history"(c). The issue here is TOE--it is for beating up third rate militaries. Practically all US Army technology turned out to be no match for modern battlefield as did operational concepts. But, on the second thought, it is, probably only natural for the US "training" to be applied to its lapdogs, because it is precisely this "audience" which is still susceptible to military fairy tales conceived in Pentagon and a network of "military" think-tanks (such as Institute for Study of War, LOL) who face now an arduous task of admitting their sheer military incompetence and impotence. It is no secret, Russian are openly now laughing at American generals. Battlefield results speak for themselves. Let them "train" another provider of cannon fodder.   

From Soggy Helsinki.

Waiting to board our plane in hotel. Evidently Finnish hotels are designed and built with people of 100 pounds' weight and the height of 4'5" in mind. I, as you may expect, am neither. So, after Moscow and St.Petersburg Helsinki looks rather... timid. But I am happy to leave for calmer and smaller (in urban sense) pastures. Metropolis living is not for me. Especially such monsters as Moscow and St. Petersburg. Now to our goats, so to speak. 

The butcher's bill for 404 grows, it is simply now a daily summary of Ukie bodies and looking at militarily illiterate psychos in Biden's Admin dreaming to "mobilize" whatever is left of 404 male, primarily 16-17 year old kids and 60+ people, yes, this is how they think. As I already stated--I was stunned by military illiteracy of not only political class in the West, but by NATO military top brass. Everything what is known about wars of the XX century and modern and future wars has been lost on them. It is surreal to observe people who pontificate non-stop on "multi-domain operations" while they do not know basic facts--forget math and physics of war--about WW II and modern (and future) weapon systems. This, not some PR BS matters in serious practical geopolitics. 

When they try to portray the "battle for Rabotino"--a hamlet with pre-war "population" of a whopping 480 people--and which doesn't exist physically anymore--as some kind of "battle", it is difficult to explain to them that the piece of land which used to be Rabotino is "defended" by a few SSO who sit there and guide Russian artillery at VSU forces each-time they try to "enter" this pile of rubble--a classic "fire sack". This is ooh the "tactics" any Soviet kid knew in 5-6th grade. But then again, when one's Field Manuals and Doctrines are written for beating the crap from generally defenseless people what do you expect? Right, Zapp Brannigan's way of military thinking. 

This all is so surreal that one begins to ask the question if they really teach anything real war related in NATO military "academies". That brings us to the issue of cadre officers. This topic needs a separate and in depth treatment. Larch sent me a recent piece by Andrei Ilnitsky (yes, in many photos he does look like Kevin Costner) and here is what this graduate of the Academy of General Staff wrote in his piece titled Induced Degradation of the World (in Russian):

Доминировавший долгие годы тезис о том, что в управлении страной должны быть интеллектуалы-технократы, — неточен, а в нынешних условиях цивилизационного противостояния с Западом — вреден. России нужны профессионалы с четким ценностным профилем служения Отечеству.

Translation: The thesis that dominated for many years that technocratic intellectuals should be in charge of the country is inaccurate, and in the current conditions of civilizational confrontation with the West is harmful. Russia needs professionals with a clear value profile of serving the Fatherland.

I may not agree with the entirety of otherwise good piece, but this is spot on. Remarkably, this also applies to combined West if it wants to survive. Without it--it is over. For Europe it already happened, for the US a slim chance remains. Remarkably, Larry touches on one of the major aspects of the issue--MSM. 

We are now in an era where I believe that the mainstream media, especially TV and Cable, are largely irrelevant. Yet the tradition of using those platforms is still firmly embedded in the establishment mentality. Politicians raise tons of money, or try to, just to buy time on conventional TV and Cable that a diminishing number of people are watching. The action has shifted to podcasts, X and other social media platforms. That is what the vast majority of Americans are watching. Most politicians do not understand nor comprehend the shift that has taken place. There are exceptions. Barack Obama picked up on it early. Donald Trump is the king of social media. And Vivek Ramaswamy gets in. The rest are still welded to the legacy media and foolishly spend money on TV ads that people skip if they can.

In the end, the blame game started by the US MSM about VSU "not following Pentagon advice" is a kindergarten ploy to shift the blame for a catastrophe for NATO towards VSU generals who do NOT in effect have real operational control over what remains of VSU and are fully subservient to the will of Washington. I guess Nuland and Sullivan need some basic military education, forget about Operations--too complex for them, a lot of math and history. So, here we are today. The admission by one of the West's generals recently about effectiveness of Russian Air Defense of 92-98%, in terms of combat aircraft it is 100% (in Russian) sends shivers down the spine of NATO pilots. And this is even before they encounter Russian Air Force which is world class. Just basic facts. I guess those "backward" Soviets knew their craft when creating the most advanced and networked air defense in the world and made a bet on the industrial might of the nation. Should I quote Lieutenant-General Klokotov again? I guess not. Too much to unpack, especially before flying back home. And I really miss my Pacific Northwest, its magnificent mountains and ocean.

Another No Shit Moment.

 Generally speaking, Larry already summarized it very well:

So here is the billion dollar question — why did the West not encourage, hell, demand that Ukraine use Himars and Storm Shadow missiles to attack those defensive lines while they were being constructed? I believe the answer is simple — Ukraine lacked the offensive tools required for such a mission and, even if such supplies had been available, the odds are high that Russia could have thwarted those efforts. We are witnessing military malpractice by the West on a grand scale. Did the NATO planners really believe the propaganda nonsense that portrayed the Russian military as a decrepit, doddering army of incompetents? If so, the West is now learning a very hard lesson and now must come to grips with the fact that NATO’s delusional calculation that Ukraine could shatter the Russian military is a complete bust.

Read the whole thing at Larry's blog. Those were delusional calculations. Now WaPo serves as Captain Obvious:

Ukraine is running out of options in its counteroffensive against Russian forces, as Kiev’s time-window to gain advances is closing, the Washington Post has reported. In an article on Sunday, the U.S. daily has claimed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which was launched in early June and was initially expected to see Kiev taking back significant territory, currently “shows signs of stalling.” “Kiev’s advances remain isolated to a handful of villages, Russian troops are pushing forward in the north and a plan to train Ukrainian pilots on U.S.-made F-16s is delayed,” wrote the U.S. newspaper. Ukrainian and Western officials might be calling for patience but “the window of time for Ukraine to conduct offensive is limited” because of the “inhospitable weather” in the region in autumn and winter, wrote the article.

And here is the thing--there are neither "options" nor any "windows" left for 404. In fact, they never existed and the only thing which mattered and still matters is how Russia would prosecute the war strategically. That is why Ukie trolls and Western media continued to push this BS about "stunning successes" of VSU around Kharkov in 2022. Read my lips--not on a single occasion did VSU outfought Russian Army and forced it to retreat--each time Russian forces withdrew from any locality (Kharkov and Kherson) it was a strategic decision. Only after that did the VSU move in "liberated" localities. This was presented by illiterate journos and equally militarily illiterate majority of Western military "analysts" as "victories" for VSU, while in reality a completely different strategic  and operational logic guided SMO from the inception. 

We see the results of this logic today. Against massive ramping up of military production by Russia it becomes perfectly clear that from the start it was about conditioning NATO, not 404, for what is coming now and is shaping to be, quoting Clausewitz, compelling the West to do Russia's will. Keep in mind that there is also Syria, there is also Taiwan and other hot spots along the front lines of unprecedented conflict between renegade West and classic civilization spearheaded by Russia. Meanwhile, I remain convinced that Pentagon top brass should start learning REAL operations and REAL military history, not Hollywood BS they study in US military educational institutions and that will help them understand the gravity of their historic miscalculation. Mind you, allowed for historic adjustments modern US military is not even in the same league with Napoleon and Hitler's generals, even if Erich Von Manstein helped in shaping American doctrinal views. But then again, he did lose the war to his Russian peers. 

Gotta love Hollywood output in 1990s.

Naryshkin About "Counteroffensive". Verbatim.

Interview to Rossiiskaya Gazeta today. 

Западникам было важно раскручивать тему предстоящего украинского контрнаступления в мировом информпространстве. Придававшееся ему явно завышенное значение - это своего рода элемент психической атаки перед боем. Кроме того, постоянное муссирование данной темы позволяло евро-атлантической тоталитарно-либеральной верхушке оправдывать поставки Киеву вооружений и обеспечить единство стран НАТО, многие из которых уже изрядно устали от Украины и ее президента. При этом в кулуарах многие западные военные аналитики выражают серьезные сомнения в успехе украинской авантюры. Не вдаваясь в детали, скажу, что задачи, о которых заявляет киевский режим, оцениваются как недостижимые. Запад, непосредственно вовлеченный в украинский конфликт, прекрасно знает реальные возможности и потенциал ВСУ, в том числе в части контрнаступления.

Авторитетные представители американских и европейских спецслужб и военных ведомств не исключают, что контрнаступление может привести к прямо противоположным результатам. Гибель значительного количества прошедших натовскую подготовку военнослужащих и уничтожение техники подорвут боеспособность украинской армии. Это в свою очередь негативно отразится на устойчивости режима Зеленского. По ряду западных оценок, под угрозой в конечном итоге может оказаться сама украинская государственность.

Translation: It was important for Westerners to promote the topic of the upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive in the global information space. The obviously overestimated importance attached to it is a kind of element of a psychic attack before a fight. In addition, the constant exaggeration of this topic allowed the Euro-Atlantic totalitarian liberal elite to justify the supply of weapons to Kyiv and ensure the unity of the NATO countries, many of which are already pretty tired of Ukraine and its president. At the same time, behind the scenes, many Western military analysts express serious doubts about the success of the Ukrainian adventure. Without going into details, I will say that the tasks announced by the Kiev regime are assessed as unattainable. The West, which is directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict, is well aware of the real capabilities and potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including in terms of the counteroffensive. Authoritative representatives of the American and European intelligence services and military departments do not rule out that the counteroffensive could lead to directly opposite results. The death of a significant number of NATO-trained military personnel and the destruction of equipment will undermine the combat capability of the Ukrainian army. This, in turn, will negatively affect the sustainability of the Zelensky regime. According to a number of Western assessments, the Ukrainian statehood itself may ultimately be under threat.

Naryshkin, being a chief spy of Russia is very measured in his statement, which is a feature of Russia's national security apparatus top officials. But West's assessments Naryshkin is talking about are absolutely irrelevant for the astonishing scale of slaughter of NATO proxies to which no person in Washington in decision making circles was ready for from the start of SMO. The issue is systemic and I cannot emphasize enough a dismay with which I react now to a recognition of a stunning, much worse than I assumed even two years ago, scale of incompetence of Western militaries who discredited themselves not just through amateur-level planning abilities, or lack thereof, but getting involved directly into what amounts to a war crime by throwing Ukie cannon fodder to be slaughtered on the scale NO US or NATO general ever saw or can comprehend. The whole world sees it now.  

Why They Are "More Adequate".

Vzglyad's observer Dmitry Bavyrin asks this question. 

Пентагон резко снизил накал страстей вокруг упавшего в Черное море беспилотника. Его шеф Ллойд Остин лично позвонил Сергею Шойгу, назвал Россию великой державой и подчеркнул важность контактов с ней. Такое легко можно было представить десять лет назад, но для нынешней политики США это нечто невообразимое. Чем Остин отличается от тех американцев, которые засели в Госдепе и Белом доме?  

Translation: The Pentagon has sharply reduced the intensity of passions around the drone that fell into the Black Sea. His boss Lloyd Austin personally called Sergei Shoigu, called Russia a great power and emphasized the importance of contacts with her. This was easy to imagine ten years ago, but for current US policy, it is something unimaginable. How is Austin different from those Americans who settled in the State Department and the White House?

I answered this question many years ago and continue to answer it ad nauseam. The answer is because the US military is the one who does dying for American political circus populated by ignoramuses, chickenhawks and cowards who never bear responsibility for their words and actions. This, plus US military deals with tangibles--personnel, hardware, technology--some of it very advanced--plus they have to rely on more realistic view of the outside world and, especially, key enemy. Such as Russia. Most American politicians, media personalities and "intellectuals" are BSers with zero applicable skills in any meaningful field of human activity. That's the answer. 

I am on record--middle to middle-high level of Pentagon people, those colonels and major generals, and rear-admirals who have to deal with resources, operational planning and warfare are the last vestiges of professional competence left in any American governmental institutions. We know that CIA is being purged of people who try to deal with facts, US military was purged and partially corrupted by neocon and woke psychopaths, but the rest of US government institutions are de facto functional failures, which cannot perform effectively functions they have been created for. Same goes for many businesses, which are nothing more than financial manipulators producing nothing. So, yes--last American professionals ARE in Pentagon.  

That also explains a desperate attempts to simulate a useful activity such as by kangaroo ICC which issued today arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. 

THE HAGUE (AP) — The International Criminal Court said on Friday it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine. The court said in a statement that Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

This is a logical conclusion to the activity of utterly corrupt European "justice" and just another proof of a correct Russian strategy designed to drown Europe in its own excrement and then see what kind of regimes' changes will occur there. To explain matters in more detail, the ICC President is this guy: 

Piotr Józef Hofmański (born 6 March 1956) is a Polish jurist and judge who has served as President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2021. He has been a judge of the ICC since 2015. His election into the Presidency of the ICC is for a three-year term. Prior to his tenure as a judge of the ICC, Hofmański was a legal expert and advisor at the Council of Europe.

So, make you own conclusions. 

In related news, the date of Xi's visit to Moscow was announced and it is this Monday. As was correctly stated, many things would be discussed tete-a-tete and rightly so--there is a lot to discuss in terms of the configuration of a new gigantic block emerging in Eurasia. Prepare yourself for the Western media going apoplectic. Meanwhile, the price cap is working, working... ah, wait:

Japan purchased Russian crude oil at $68.5 per barrel in February, TASS news agency reported on Thursday, citing calculations based on statistics from the Japanese Finance Ministry. The figure is above the $60 price cap that Tokyo agreed to with its Western allies, in an effort to punish Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. Last month, Japanese importers reportedly bought 232,700 barrels of oil from Russia with a total value of 2.125 billion yen ($15.945 million). The average cost of a barrel from the February batch totaled $68.52, exceeding the Western price cap for Russian oil supported by Japan.

Not to mention others buying it way above this price cap. But, as I said, it is impossible to explain to Western politicos that they are dumb, because they are dumb--Dunning-Krueger for ya. For people whose only ability is to shake the air, it is inconceivable to relate to reality.